Daisies

Sedmikrásky; satire, Czechia, 1966; D: Vera Chytilová, S: Jitka Cerhová, Ivana Karbanová, Julius Albert, Marie Cesková, Jirina Myskova, Josef Konícek, Marcela Brezinova

A giant spinning wheel is intercut with scenes of a bombardment of some town. Friends Marie and Marie are sitting in their bathing suits and talking about life, while every movement of their hands in causing strange creaky sounds. One Marie has long black hair, while the second one has short red hair, both have a mad fun and don't care for the social norms. They invite one gentleman for a date only to get rid of him in the train, and repeat that procedure four times. Marie steals money from a woman. The two Maries start an argument, but quickly reconcile again and continue searching for happiness. Nobody notices them on the street so they enter an elevator and find a room full of food. They destroy everything there and climb up a chandelier. Suddenly, they find themselves in the water and drown. If they had another chance, they would have done everything the same.

A magical world of pure Dada: excellent satirical plotless comedy "Sedmikrasky" describes the friendship of two main heroines, both called Maria, with many symbols, while the genius visual style of the director Vera Chytilova can be sensed already in the sole sequence of the music of the piano, where in fast rhythm images of stuffed butterflies are exchanged for every musical note! In the world of cinema, 95 % of all films have a clear story that everyone can follow, but "Sedmikrasky" is one of those 5 % of experimental films that don't have neither a head nor a tale, and will obviously cause a part of the viewers to dismiss it as garbage, but it is a radical, inventive and rich flick with a short running time of only 75 minutes that was built exactly on that episodic notion in order to try something different in the Czech New Wave and cinema. The two Marias in the end demolish a room filled with wealthy food just for fun, which shows how the youngsters can't identify with the Communist rule and become self-destructive, which in the end caused Chytilova to get banned from making films in Czechoslovakia for years. Among other original scenes in this feminist film are red, green and blue photography; a high speed shot of bubbles popping out in a glass; heroines "cutting" themselves with scissors so that their limbs are flying in the room; and chewing paper food. Truly a unusual classic from which one can learn a lot, but it is so hermetic and chaotic that many will dismiss it and only a certain type of audience will understand it.

Grade:+++